1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of apparatuses for assembling antibody testing devices, particularly apparatuses which can be used to assemble antibody testing devices which are to be filled with liquid absorbing powder.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the past, antibody testing devices, such as those of U.S. Pat. No. 4,789,526 to Matkovich and U.S. Pat. No. 4,797,260 to Parker, have included porous filter plugs in their housing portions to absorb the fluid samples used with these antibody test devices. These porous filter members are commonly made of fibrous materials, such as cellulose acetate. However, due to the relatively low absorbency of these prior art materials, only small volumes of fluids can be used with these devices. In co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 07/695,950, there is disclosed an antibody test device which includes a hydrophilic liquid absorbing powder material, such as diatomaceous earth, in lieu of a porous fibrous filter plug member. Since the powder material is more absorbent than the previously used porous fibrous materials, greater volumes of fluid samples can be used for an antibody testing device of a given size, thereby permitting these antibody testing devices to be employed in biotests for which these devices were previously not useable, due to the relatively large volume of fluid sample required.
However, until now, there has not been available an apparatus for economically and precisely filling antibody test devices with hydrophilic liquid absorbing powders on a commercial scale, due to the difficult of handling the powder material.